


Half-baked

by enchantedbeauty



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Desna1, Gen, Happy Ending, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-08-06 08:12:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 34
Words: 15,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16384472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enchantedbeauty/pseuds/enchantedbeauty
Summary: An almost story of interconnected snippets inspired by Inktober prompts featuring Fairy Tail characters and Desna's Pradesh family.





	1. Grimoire

Lucy hated the Lending Bookstore. The owners didn’t bother to make sure that their employees followed Geoffrey’s System for cataloguing grimoires meaning that she was wandering down the aisles with a piece of paper in her hand with the symbol that would be on the binding.

If her dad wasn’t so nosy about where she was spending her money, she’d have just gone to Barnabas and bought the damned book. However, her dad would know. And lecture her about how if none of the school’s four libraries had it, she probably didn’t need to be reading it. This ignored the fact that the head librarian was a censoring dictator. Or that she was nineteen and legally an adult. Or that she’d gotten into the elite college program on her own merits with nothing to do with her father.

Her friends usually teased her when she ranted about her father’s controlling nature over her finances. ‘I’m paying for it, so I deserve to know,’ was what he always said. Her friends were largely scholarship recipients that needed their part-time jobs and reminded her of that.

“Of course,” she muttered to herself when she found the book well over her head.

“Need a hand?” a smooth voice with the distinctive lilt of a Boscan said.

She turned and froze. She could feel the blush heating up her face and slowly turning her brain to mush. The man arched an eyebrow at her.

She knew Boscans. Was even friends with Boscan seith mage. The man towering over her was ridiculously attractive even for a Boscan. His white-blonde hair was plaited down his back and his eyes were a beautiful shade of lavender.

“I- um… This one,” she stammered out and showed him the sigil. He found it and passed it to her. “Uh…thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” he said with a smile.

He was barely to the end of aisle when Levy turned down the aisle, looking for Lucy. Levy gawked for a second before half-running to Lucy.

“Do you know who that is?”

“Who?”

“Kaleb Pradesh.”

“I know that name… _That’s_ Bix’s brother?”

“Yep.

“Damn. Wait. He’s a Tech.” The school had many factions but a major one that had arisen over the last few years was tech versus traditional magic. While Lucy had no qualms about technology, she firmly believed that magic and technology shouldn’t be merged.

“Yup.”

Lucy sighed. “That’s a shame. I got the book.”

“Great. You know, he doesn’t have to be a Tech in your fantasies.”

“That is very true. Did you see his butt? You could bounce a quarter off it,” Lucy joked as she and Levy went to the counter to pay the rental fee for the book.


	2. Potions

“Are we out of elderberry?” Lucy asked Levy as she stared into the cabinet.

“Didn’t you use the last of it for Happy’s cough syrup?”

“Crap. I forgot about that. Damn cat should’ve just gone to the vet. All right. I’m headed to Whitman’s. Do you need anything?”

“Not from there, but can you grab me a tea from Mira’s?”

Lucy cringed. As much as she liked Mira, she wasn’t sure that she was in the mood for her needling on her nonexistent love life.

“Yeah,” she said, waving away Levy’s offered jewel.

She stopped at Whitman’s first and almost turned back when she saw that it was Whitman in the apothecary. He was judgmental and it frustrated her. To hide what she was planning, she also bought ginger and honey as if she was making more elderberry cough syrup. As he rung her up, she watched as he calculated the possible potions that she intended on making.

At the tea shop, Mira was surprisingly uninterested in her potential love life. After placing the orders for hers and Levy’s teas, she turned and saw what had most of Mira’s attention.

Sitting at one of the back tables was Bickslow and a group of men that looked like something out of a wet dream. Recognizing Kaleb and Cristoff, she realized that these must be the rest of the Pradesh men. She hoped to get out of the shop before Bickslow noticed her, but she barely lasted a minute hovering away from them.

“Cosplayer!”

She sighed and walked over. “Why do you insist on that awful nickname?”

“Why do you answer to it?” he teased.

“You’re right. I’m going to ignore you now,” she said, turning her back on them.

“Ah. Come on, Lucy.”

She rolled her eyes and turned back.

“Besides, aren’t you the least bit interested in my brothers?”

She arched an eyebrow and pretended that their eyes on her wasn’t flushing her cheeks. “Nope,” she replied, popping the ‘p’. “You know I have no patience for Techs.”

“Ouch,” the one with black and red hair said.

“Play nice. Kaleb, Farron, and Zen are grad students,” Bickslow said, gesturing to each one.

Lucy studied Zen then shifted away slightly. She hadn’t met him yet but knew him and his magic by reputation.

“Cris, you probably know from around the department. And Vander. He’s a junior. Guys, this is Lucy Heartfilia, sophomore. She’s Laxus’s kin.”

“I know that name. Your family raises-” Cristoff started to say.

“Dragon slayers. Yeah. We have for four hundred years. It’s how I’m kin to all of the other slayers. Your dad didn’t call about you and your sister until after my mom had passed.”

“I’m sorry. Will you continue the tradition?”

“Probably.”

“How is it that your family raises dragon slayers?” Farron asked. He’d known that his father thought it would be good for Cristoff and Emzadi to spend time with other slayers.

“We’re celestial mages-”

“That explains the dislike of Tech,” Kaleb muttered.

“I like technology. I’m not a luddite. Just because something’s old, doesn’t make it broken. Magic can be improved upon without your gadgets.”

“Lucy?” Mira called. She walked over and grabbed her teas.

As she walked out, she stuck her tongue out with a sneer at Kaleb.


	3. World building

I’m not going to do any actual world building within these snippets so here’s what I’ve got so far.  
These center on a university that also teaches magic. It’s on an island that is considered a province of Fiore but also it’s own country. If a student commits a crime more punishable than by a fine, they’re sent to their respective countries. Students from all around Ishgar attend the school to both focus on normal degrees as well as their magic.  
There’s a debate concerning whether technology and magic should be merged. Lucy is a traditionalist. The Pradeshes are techs. Levy is somewhere in the middle.


	4. Voodoo Doll

“What are you doing?” Bickslow asked, plopping into the seat across the table from Lucy.

“Nothing!” she said, slapping her hands over her project and dropping the needle she’d been threading. She was regretting her need to react instead of stewing until she got home but she had lectures most of the day. And Natsu was a like a dog reacting to his owner’s stress. The last thing she needed was the social science building to go up in flames.

Bickslow arched an eyebrow then reached over and lifted her hands so that he could grab what they were covering. He stared at the nearly finished doll in his hand.

“Is this a voodoo doll? Of my brother?” It had Kaleb’s long white-blond hair with lavender beads as eyes.

“No.” Then, muttered under her breath, she added, “I don’t have anything to tie it to him with.”

Bickslow barked out a laugh, his tongue wagging. While he knew his friend had a temper, she’d grown up with dragon slayers after all, that Kaleb could illicit this level of ire from her was surprising. It had been two weeks since he’d introduced her to his brothers. Other than talking to Cristoff a bit more casually, he wasn’t aware that she’d had any interactions with his brother.

“So, what’s got you so pissed?”

She pulled out her tablet and opened a new app on it. The look on her face as she did told him exactly how she felt about it. Celestial tracking app.

“Your brother’s newest project. Tracks all celestial bodies and recommends spells based on them. Oh. And it gives you your horoscope. My professor _loves_ it. Kaleb comes into the classroom today for a demonstration and says, ‘Just because your magic is old, doesn’t mean it can’t be brought into the 8th century.’ With this cocky look on his ridiculously handsome.” As she ranted, she aggressively stabbed the needle into the voodoo doll’s arm.

Bickslow decided he should warn his brother to stop antagonizing the woman. Between her brains and her spirits, she probably could get the hair she needed to charm the doll.


	5. Moon

Cristoff woke up in an unfamiliar bed. Under normal circumstances, that might not have been particularly strange except that he knew that it had been a full moon the night before. If anything, he should be waking up with other people in his bed.

Instead, he smelled stardust and strawberries which he recognized as Lucy’s scent. And heard the sound of a page of a book flipping.

He sat up and looked at Lucy who was curled up in an armchair with a book in her lap. She looked exhausted but not in a satisfied, I-had-sex-all-night kind of way.

“What happened?”

She glanced up, blushed, and quickly looked back down at her book. “What do you remember?”

He glanced down and realized that he was naked. “I only ever remember the beginning of the moon haze.”

“The eclipse started about an hour after moonrise. About thirty minutes before totality, you changed. Got aggressive. Next thing I know, I’m getting kidnapped by your brother. Not a fan, by the way. Apparently, Farron thought that since my family raised dragon slayers, I might have a few tricks.”

“What did you do?”

“For techs, y’all have a decently stocked potions cabinet. You might feel a bit out if it for a while. I didn’t know your exact weight and I had to substitute a few ingredients that you didn’t have.”

“You created a tranquilizer?”

“Pretty much. Normally, I have other things that I can do it but on such short notice.” She shrugged.

“Are you going to look at me?”

“Sure… When you have clothes on.”

He chuckled. “Thank you, but how can I stop that from happening again?”

“It happened because the full moon was in Libra. Because of your connection to the moon, you were knocked off balance. It was a perfect storm kind of situation. Luckily, it won’t happen for another ten years roughly. Hopefully you’ll be mated by then.” Flipping the page, she muttered, “Guess his stupid app couldn’t predict this.”

Cristoff stood and hugged her.

“You’re still naked,” she squawked.

“Are you a virgin?”

“No, but I’m not sleeping with you,” she said, blushing and trying her hardest to keep her eyes on his face.

“If you asked, I’d say yes,” he said huskily, resisting the urge to laugh since he was fairly certain steam came out her ears.

“I’m gonna go get some water to eat,” she said before scampering out of the room.

He walked down the hall to his own bedroom and got dressed. While not everyone was placed into the category of kin or mate, he was surprised that his magic hadn’t put her into one of those categories. People who spent a decent amount of time in close quarters with dragon slayers were always classified in some way.

He was walking down to the kitchen when he heard Lucy and Kaleb arguing.

“That’s because magic is an art. It can’t be turned into ones and zeroes,” Lucy yelled.

“It can be.”

“No. Otherwise, it’s like music without soul. Without heart.”

“Could you two just have sex already?” Vander asked from the breakfast nook.

“I don’t think she could handle me.”

Lucy scoffed. “Pretty boys like you rely on their looks to get girls instead of actually being good in bed.”

“Honey, I’m Boscan. We’re taught to be good lovers.”

“And I was taught calculus. You don’t see me using it.”

Cristoff chuckled. When Lucy’s attention turned towards him, he asked, “Why don’t I feel an impulse to claim you as kin or mate? You’re around dragon slayers often enough.”

“I know. It’s part of why Heartfilias raise dragon slayers. We’re- I guess the right way to say it is immune. Technically, I’m not any of the slayers’ kin. But I’ve known them so long that I was friendzoned.” She glanced at the clock. “Shit. I’m late.” She ran out the front door then a minute later walked back in. “Where the fuck am I?”

Vander stood from the table. “C’mon Stardust. I’ll take you home.”

“On second thought-” Before she could refuse, Vander hugged her and Void jumped her home.

“You’re interested in her,” Kaleb said to Cristoff.

“Aren’t you?” he replied. His brother didn’t respond but Cristoff didn’t really need him to.


	6. Third Eye

Levy walked into the house she shared with Lucy to find Lucy and Cana preparing to draw something on the hardwood floors of the living room. They’d shoved the furniture against the walls and Lucy had pulled out a plethora of white and purple candles that were situated all over the room.

“What are you doing?”

Both women jumped and said, “Nothing.”

On the island, Levy noticed a glass of clear liquid. She sniffed it then took a sip and made a blegh face. “Vodka? You hate vodka. You only drink it when-” She stopped when she realized both of her friends were sheepishly refusing to look at her. Well, Lucy was. Cana was probably halfway to drunk. “Really? You’re doing trance work?”

“We are opening our third eye. Well Lulu is.”

“Why?”

Cana stumbled over to Levy. “Because she won’t rely on these-” she squeezed her own boobs- “to get a guy.”

“Seriously? Is this the best use of this kind of magic?”

“The third eye often recognizes things that our conscious mind doesn’t. I just want a list of potential dates for the dance.”

“A list? Why do you need a list of men?”

“Laxus,” Lucy said blandly. “Natsu.”

“Okay. That’s a valid point.”

“I have a week until the dance. That gives me a week to see who will run off courtesy of Laxus and Natsu.”

“Couldn’t you use one of the predictive algorithm apps like every other woman on campus?” She flinched when Lucy glared at her. “Nope. Of course not. What was I thinking? Oh, yeah. That this is a bad idea,” Levy muttered but didn’t stop Lucy when she went back to drawing an eye of the floor.

The two women sat on the two points with a brown candle between them. As an additional precaution, Levy drew runes around them before sitting down on the couch to watch. Cana took Lucy’s hand and pricked her finger with a needle. The blood dripped into the candle and sizzled.

“Tell me. Tell me who has been attracted to this body. Tell me. Tell me who has lusted for this body.” Cana was usually tipsy because it kept her conscious mind from stifling her magic. The general lightness that vodka caused was why it was her liquor of choice for spells like this.

Her handwriting in the notepad as she inscribed the names of the men and women that their beautiful friend attracted would be half legible. However, by the third page, Lucy and Levy both knew that there’d be plenty of options. The candle flickered out and Cana stopped writing.

“Here. I’m gonna go sleep this vodka off,” she said, stumbling towards the stairs.

Lucy helped her up the stairs to the guest bedroom before rejoining Levy in the living room.

“Hm…nope. No. No. Maybe. Not again.” Some names took longer to decipher. She was particularly interested in women, so she was crossing them off. “Not a chance in hell,” she said, nearly stabbing one name.

When Lucy wasn’t looking, Levy looked at the last name. It was nearly illegible through Lucy’s scratches: Kaleb Pradesh. She bit her lip to keep from giggling and noticed that the other Pradesh men only had one scratch through them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PSA: Meditation is a better way to open the third eye. It’s just not nearly as interesting.


	7. Black Cat

Zen was looking for a book in the stacks when he saw it. The nice ass was barely covered by a short skirt. Just above the skirt on the woman’s lower back was a tattoo of a black cat wearing a witch’s hat chasing after a bird made from stars. The rest of the woman seemed to be hiding beneath the study cubicle.

“You alright there?” he asked.

The woman jumped. He cringed for her when he heard her head hit the table.

“Shit,” she cursed when her bag of contraband candies scattered everywhere.

She turned to look at him and he found himself cursing that the bands that shielded him from a celestial spirit mage’s compulsion didn’t come with a proximity alert.

“Ow,” she moaned feeling the goose egg that was forming on her temple.

“Here,” he said, his fingers brushing the bump on her temple and channeling his magic to heal it.

“That’s a nifty trick. Thank you,” she said with a smile.

“Glad to help since it was slightly my fault.”

“It was mostly your fault,” she corrected as she dropped down to clean up the candies before one of the matrons found her with them. Her cheeks flushed when her stomach grumbled.

“C’mon. Let’s go get some real food in you.”

They only ended up going as far as the café that took up the first floor of the library.

“What’s the story behind the tattoo?”

Lucy sighed. “I started here as a sophomore after an incident at my old university. I went to the Rollston School of Business at CU. I was the only mage. Between that and how I look, I was bullied. They don’t think highly of working mages and it didn’t matter that my last name was ‘Heartfilia.’

“Anyways, after a bad incident that involved Leo summoning himself to protect me, Natsu and Levy came to check on me. I’m pretty sure the general idea of the tattoo was Levy’s idea but Natsu designed the cat with the hat to represent me and it chasing after the freedom that my magic was supposed to have.” She flipped her wrist so that Zen could see a second bird made from stars. “We got matching ones- his is made from flames- when we turned 18. We aren’t caged birds.”

“I was,” he said and saw the way that her eyes automatically glanced to the bands on his arms. “You know.”

She nodded. “All celestial mages are warned. There’s only a few of us here since most would rather go to the Acadame.”

“I spent some time there too.”

“I wanted to go but my dad refused to let me go to Bosco.”

“You’re an adult.”

“Yeah, but he pays my tuition. Pick your battles.”

He nodded, accepting that answer. “I heard a rumor that you have a list of potential dates for the dance.”

She choked on her bite of salad. “Where did you hear that?”

“Around. So, it’s true?”

“Erm…” She sighed. “Yeah. I’m about a third of the way through and none have lasted more than a few hours as a yes.”

“Why? I’d think you would have a line of half the school,” he said, glancing her over.

“Laxus and Natsu. They growl and any guy runs away.” She groaned and dropped her head onto the table.

“And where do my brothers and me rank on this list?”

She turned her head to look at him. “They don’t.”

“That’s interesting since we’re Boscan and my brothers have no preferences so short of already having dates, they should be showing up on everyone’s predictive algorithm. Unless you crossed them out yourself.”

“You know I don’t use predictive algorithms,” she said, ignoring the second part of his assumption.

“Why don’t you like Techs?”

“You weren’t there when your brother kidnapped me to help Cris, right?”

“No. We weren’t sure how you might be affected by his pheromones, so they sent me to stay with my sisters.”

“I had to create a potion to stabilize him. Which you didn’t have all the ingredients that I normally would have used so I had to figure it out as I went. When you rely on the tech, there’s no imagination. If I hadn’t been there, Kaleb probably would’ve found a recipe online and realizing that he didn’t have all the ingredients, probably gone to the market since Whitman’s closes at nine, got less than stellar quality ingredients, and who knows how much damage could have been done in that time.

“Magic is a craft. It’s an artform. It shouldn’t be put in a box.”

Zen smiled slightly. “You might’ve just made a convert out of me.”

“Really?” She smiled.

“Yeah.”

Her face lit up and he was cursing himself. He didn’t want to be part of his brothers’ friendly rivalry over the woman. Vander thought it was too much work to contend with and Farron hadn’t gotten his nose out of a book long enough to realize that it was almost time for the fall dance. Bickslow wasn’t willing to go up against Laxus on top of everyone else.

“You know, maybe you should try going with one of us. At least, we wouldn’t be scared of your guardian dragons. I mean, hell, Cris will growl right back.”

“Are you asking?”

“Maybe.”

“I’ll think about it. First, I want to see how long my current date lasts.”

Before she could walk away, Zen asked, “Were we on the list?”

“Of course, you were.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before anyone forgets, this is an AU where all the dragon slayers (except Cris and Emi) spent significant amounts of time at the Heartfilia Konzern. And aren’t from 400 hundred years in the past. Imagine how Natsu might be if he’d grown up with some structure.


	8. Forest

“On your left,” a voice said as he ran past Lucy on the forest trail. That didn’t stop her from squeaking, jumping, and falling. Hearing her crash, Farron stopped and turned around.

Of all the women he thought it might be, he hadn’t expected it to be Lucy. Her blonde hair was twisted into a tight bun and her athletic clothes left little to the imagination. While he might not be as lecherous as Vander, even he couldn’t help considering how large her bust must be if it was still so large in the tight sports bra.

“I didn’t mean to startle you, Miss Lucy,” he said politely as he held out his hand.

Her eyes shot up from where they’d been trained on his chest. “Uh, just Lucy. The only people that call me Miss Lucy are staff or people who want something from my father.”

“Of course,” he replied. He squatted down to get a look at her knee. “Shame Cris or Zen aren’t here. They could heal that with no trouble.”

“It’s just skinned up a bit. I can clean it when I get back.” Even still, she realized, it stung enough that she wasn’t going to be finishing her run.

“I’ll walk with you.”

She swallowed. “No. You’re fine. I mean, it’s fine.” He arched an eyebrow at her and she hoped her blush could be explained away as exertion.

“I’m surprised you run,” he said, deciding to take pity on her.

“I have to run after Natsu a lot, so it made sense. And of course you run. You obviously have a runner/swimmer body that is rather lickable and I really wish I could stop talking now.”

Farron chuckled. “I don’t know. I’m rather enjoying the rambling.”

“Right now, I’m wishing there were forest vulcans on the island. Or that I had my keys and Virgo could put me out of my misery.”

“Natsu…That’s the fire dragon slayer, right?”

“Yeah. He’s spent the most time with me. After Mom died, Dad said I wasn’t ready to take on any slayers. He wasn’t wrong. Natsu and Laxus came around every few months. Gajeel fell off the face of the planet until I found out about him being with Phantom. I think I embarrassed him.”

“What did you do?”

“Marched in there and dragged him out by the ear. Picture it: all 6 foot 3 inches of dragon slayer being dragged out my tiny ass and he’s just making this whiny noise like a scolded dog.”

Farron barked out a laugh.

“I’d already talked to Makarov, the guildmaster of Fairy Tail, about taking him. Dad had sent Gajeel and Natsu to separate guilds to keep them out of trouble but didn’t realize that Phantom Lord was just barely _not_ a dark guild.”

“Your father has sent a few marriage requests to mine.”

“Doesn’t surprise me. He’s sent them to every eligible bachelor between Fiore and Pregrande.”

Farron stopped. “He sent them to Pergrande?”

“A few. I found out after the fact. Pointed out that any man would be more interested in Natsu than in me.”

“Have you thought about marriage?” he asked as they started walking again.

“You asking?”

“No, just wondering. I mean, if you’re planning on continuing the family tradition, wouldn’t marrying a dragon slayer make sense?”

“Possibly,” she said as the reached where the forest path met the road. “I have spent too much time fight my father for the little bit of freedom that I do have. I’m not giving it up just for the sake of having a pretty face in my bed.”

She looked him in the eye and he realized that she’d known exactly what his magic was and had rambled earlier to not give him a reason to listen into her thoughts. She knew he’d asked as a way to put feelers out for his brothers.

“You’re a terrifyingly intelligent woman.”

“So I’ve been told.” She smirked. “Thank you for your cooperation.”


	9. Tarot

“What are you doing?” Lucy asked as she walked into her house and seeing Levy and Cana at the table.

“Nothing,” Levy said, practically throwing herself across the table.

Lucy paused at the sense of déjà vu before turning to Cana.

“We’re doing a reading to see which of the Pradesh men you should date,” Cana said with a shrug, ignoring Levy’s glare.

“The dance is tomorrow. I’m pretty sure all of them have dates,” Lucy replied blandly. “Not that I’m interested in them!” she said when her two friends snickered. She sighed and plopped down next to Levy. “What are you using for querents?”

“The Stars for you, obviously. The Moon for Cristoff, Judgement for Zen, and The Sun for Kaleb.”

“The Sun? You couldn’t use The Devil?”

Cana snickered. “I couldn’t decide between The Emperor, Temperance, and The Sun. I let the cards decide.”

“See? You didn’t even give them the option of choosing The Devil. They probably would have. I still don’t see the point of this.”

Cana flipped a card which she placed over The Lovers and horizontally placed above The Stars. “You’re conflicted. Makes sense. There’s three hot men interested in you.”

Lucy scoffed. “Or I’m going to the dance with Dan Straight.”

Both of her friends shuddered. Cana placed three cards around the men’ querents.

“Let’s see. Cristoff has the 6 of Chalices, which is interesting since he’s the one of the only dragon slayers that you _didn’t_ know as a child.”

“That could be a brownie point in his favor since it means he doesn’t see Lu as a sister like the others.”

“The Emperor. So he sees himself as a guardian. A protector. That’s a good thing. Ace of Wands-”

“Isn’t that the ego? I would have expected that one with Kaleb,” Lucy muttered.

“It means that he knows himself. Hm… I like Cristoff.”

“Zen?” Lucy asked.

“Oo… She’s curious now,” Levy teased.

“I’m surprised you didn’t just input everything into a predictive app,” Lucy retorted.

Cana slapped her hands over her heart with a scandalized look at their friend. Lucy and Levy had been friends so long that Lucy forgave Levy’s fondness for tech magic. Besides, at Levy’s core, she really just wanted to learn everything. On the other hand, Cana was a traditionalist like her.

“Zen’s is… sad. The 3 of Swords, tragedy.”

“He was a gladiator in Pergrande.”

“He’s also a bit of a romantic.”

“The 2 of Chalices can also mean familial bonds,” Lucy said before hearts showed up in either of her friends’ eyes.

“But it rarely does. And the 8 of Pentacles, creation. There’s lots of things you could create,” Cana said with a shimmy.

“Like babies.”

“I was just thinking the sounds of wild monkey sex, but yeah. Babies too.”

“Why did I agree to this?” Lucy asked.

“‘Cause you knew we were going to do it regardless,” Cana said. “Now for Kaleb. He’s got the 2 of Pentacles and the 10 of Wands which are all about balancing opposite opinions and making connections with others,” she said in an almost sing-song look. Her and Levy both giving Lucy significant looks.

“You can keep giving me that look but it’s not gonna stop me from thinking he’s an asshole.”

“Even though the 6 of Pentacles literally means that he’s actually a sweetheart?”

“What was the point of this?” Lucy asked.

“I don’t know. I was expecting the cards to say ‘pick this one.’”

“I should have just used one of the predictive apps,” Levy muttered.

Lucy stood as Cana started arguing the merits of traditional tarot reading. The reading didn’t really tell her anything new. Cristoff and Zen were both amazing men and she supposed that she could acknowledge that Kaleb might be as well. Not that she was willing to say that aloud.


	10. Dance

Lucy stood to the side of the clearing sipping on her cocktail and watching the other dancers. Levy was flitting around Gajeel who was trying his hardest to keep up with her lively movements. She wasn’t real certain where Cana and Bacchus had disappeared off to. They’d been grinding pretty hard, so she’d put money on somewhere for a quickie. Lisanna had dragged Natsu off to dance and she waved off his attempts to return to her.

“You alright here, Cosplayer?” Bickslow asked with a teasing expression.

“Do I look like I’m cosplaying?” she asked, gesturing towards her outfit.

“No. You look like you let Cana dress you.”

Lucy laughed because he was right. She hadn’t known what to expect from the party, so she’d pulled out her fancier dresses and heels. Cana showed up to get ready together only to scoff at Lucy’s assembled outfits and start digging into her considerable closet herself. She ended up in a short skirt, a purple sleeveless camisole over a pink bandeau, and black ankle boots. At first, she’d fought Cana, but her friend reminded her that having a sexy body was why they spent time in the gym in the first place.

“You know how she is. She’s terrifying when mostly sober.”

“Where _is_ Cana?”

“I’m assuming somewhere having sex with Bacchus.”

“He’s unconscious by the bar so probably not.”

Lucy giggled. “Are all your brothers accounted for?”

Bickslow was quiet as he used his considerable height to survey the crowd. “Well…I count three possible men. One being my brother. And um your date making out with a brunette over there.”

“Yeah,” she sighed, “I know.” He’d ditched her as soon as he saw a girl in less clothing and willing to let him cop a feel.

“Why did you bother with that loser?”

“He didn’t run away.”

“You deserve better.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s just hard when you have a bunch of over protective dragon slayers growling at any potential date.”

“C’mon,” Bickslow said.

“Where?”

“Your glass is empty and you need to dance.” Lucy giggled and let him drag her off.

 

Lucy stumbled out of the park’s bathroom. She glanced at the party, dance, whatever it was and then back towards town. Part of her brain told her that she should go back to the bonfire and dancing with Bickslow. It was a shame that she knew he’d never risk Laxus’s wrath or she’d take him home. She’d tried before but that was always his response.

“Hey there,” a voice said softly as he caught her from falling.

“Huh?” she muttered, looking up into beautiful eyes. “Thanks. You have really good timing.”

“You’re slurring.”

“I’m not slurring. You’re slurring.” She giggled when the finger she’d been pointing at him with touched his lips. “There’s two of you. Is it my birthday?” She tried to climb up the man.

“You’re drunk.”

“I’d want to climb you like a tree if I was sober too.”

“Yup. Really drunk. I’ll tell Bix,” he said as wrapped her legs around his waist so that he could support her better.

“Hm… Tell Bixy I had fun,” she said into the man’s neck as she started to get comfortable and doze off.

“Yeah. I will. Sleep,” he murmured softly.


	11. Skull

Her head hurt. She knew if she opened her eyes, they’d hurt. Was it possible for her skull to have shrunk?

Her hair hurt. She wasn’t certain how her hair hurt. Or why it hurt. But her hair definitely hurt. And not in a ‘this hairdo is too heavy on my head’ kind of way. Like a ‘each strand is crying out in pain’ kind of way. The realization that she was anthropomorphizing her hair made her realize that she was still somewhere between drunk and hungover. Also, thinking the word ‘anthropomorphizing’ while sorta hungover was rather painful.

She tried to get comfortable, hoping to sleep off more of this migraine before the nausea kicked in, when she realized she wasn’t in her pajamas. Levy’s annoying, morning person personality woke her up, causing her to stumble out of her room naked enough times that she had learned to wear pajamas. But all she was in was an oversized shirt that was definitely not one of the ones she’d stolen from Laxus.

She remembered the party. Dancing with Bickslow. Out drinking Bickslow which explained the hangover. Did she finally manage to go home with Bix? Then she remembered purple-gold eyes and black hair and shot up in the bed.

“Ow. Shouldn’t have done that,” she moaned, cradling her head.

“Here,” a voice said quietly and she felt fingers rubbing her temple as magic eased its way in slowly.

She looked up into Zen’s eyes with a smile. “Thank you. Did we?”

“No. You were really drunk. Getting you to sleep in that shirt took a lot of work.”

“Right,” she said, glancing down and appreciating how nice his chest looked and recognizing that she was still too drunk to get flustered.

“You did mention that you wanted to climb me like a tree.”

“Yup.” She glanced at the clock on his bedside table. “However, it’s three in the morning. How about a few more hours of sleep first?”

Zen chuckled and pulled her onto his chest to get comfortable. “Go to sleep,” he said, stroking her hair.


	12. Skull (Kaleb)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally, Dance and Skull was supposed to focus on Kaleb and Lucy, but I changed the ending of Dance and couldn’t decide who it should be so I wrote both. Zen's the official one though.

Her head hurt. She knew if she opened her eyes, they’d hurt. Was it possible for her skull to have shrunk?

Her hair hurt. She wasn’t certain how her hair hurt. Or why it hurt. But her hair definitely hurt. And not in a ‘this hairdo is too heavy on my head’ kind of way. Like a ‘each strand is crying out in pain’ kind of way. The realization that she was anthropomorphizing her hair made her realize that she was still somewhere between drunk and hungover. Also, thinking the word ‘anthropomorphizing’ while sorta hungover was rather painful.

She tried to get comfortable, hoping to sleep off more of this migraine before the nausea kicked in, when she realized she wasn’t in her pajamas. Levy’s annoying, morning person personality woke her up, causing her to stumble out of her room naked enough times that she had learned to wear pajamas. But all she was in was an oversized shirt that was definitely not one of the ones she’d stolen from Laxus.

She remembered the party. Dancing with Bickslow. Out drinking Bickslow which explained the hangover. Did she finally manage to go home with Bix?

“Bix?” she murmured.

Then she remembered lavender eyes and platinum hair and shot up in the bed.

“Ow. Shouldn’t have done that,” she moaned, cradling her head.

“Here,” a voice said quietly and she saw a glass of water and a hand holding some sort of pain reliever.

“Thank you,” she said, trying to stay quiet because her own voice was grating to her hangover.

“Normally, I don’t get mistaken for my brothers.”

She wanted to glare but knew the movement would hurt too much. “Did we?”

“You were drunk.”

“Right. Good. Thank you. Whose shirt is this?”

“Mine. While I don’t mind sleeping next to you naked, given that you don’t exactly like me, I thought it would be better if you were at least wearing something.”

Lucy went to nod only for the subtle movement to make her whimper as she clumsily tried to get up.

“Where are you going?” he asked, standing up to follow her.

“To sleep in Bix’s room.”

Kaleb caught her when she stumbled again. “He didn’t come home alone. Come back to sleep. I promise I won’t bite unless asked.” She sighed and let him guide her back to the bed since her still drunk mind was unable to come up with a valid alternative. “I’m surprised. You said you wanted to climb me like a tree.”

“I’ve said you’re an asshole. Not that you’re ugly.” She snuggled onto her side and Kaleb was careful not to touch her. “You’re like ridiculous. It’s not fair that you have brains and beauty.” Her voice was slurring as she fell back asleep.

“Do you still think I’m an asshole?”

“An asshole with a few redeemable qualities.”

He chuckled once he knew she was asleep. “You’ve got an impressive amount of brains and beauty, too.”


	13. Herbs

Bickslow found out about Lucy sleeping over when he got up about ten minutes after she left. He’d never been so grateful that the woman he’d brought home was a teleport mage. The only reason he’d bothered to go up to her was that she’d been making out with Dan Straight all night and as revenge for his friend, he wanted to make sure the man went home alone.

“Are you interested in this girl?” the woman, whose name he didn’t know, asked after teleporting him into Lucy’s neighborhood.

“Huh? No. I’d never risk my life that way. She’s just a friend,” he replied before stopping and turning to give the woman following him a confused look.

“Oh. Good. So, call me later?”

“Probably not.”

She made an outraged sound before slapping him and teleporting away. He continued to stare at where she’d been before returning to the task at hand.

Levy answered the door with her weird morning chipper-ness.

“Is Lucy here?”

“No. She just left.”

“Good.” He walked past her and into the kitchen. “Do you have chicory?”

“I don’t think so,” Levy said, walking over to the herb cabinet. “Hm…no.” She walked over to the potion cabinet in the living room. “Nope.”

“Okay.”

He sat down on the stool and watched the door.

“Do I wanna know?” Levy asked, her hands on her hips as she looked at the man.

“Probably not.”

Levy shrugged and went back to her book in the living room.

“Whitman’s also had a sale on licorice-” Lucy’s voice trailed off when she realized that it was Bickslow sitting in her kitchen. “What are you doing here?”

“Zen’s wondering why you snuck out so early but mostly, I’m here the hair.”

“Sex with your brother- with Zen- potentially has serious ramifications. It’s not something that should be decided while half-drunk and half-asleep.”

“I appreciate that. Now, the hair?”

“No idea what you’re talking about.”

“Kaleb’s hair. I know you took some.”

“Nope.”

Bickslow snatched the bag from Lucy’s hand and pulled out the packet label: chicory root. “Really? Hair. Now.”

“Hmph,” she said, storming up the stairs. She returned a minute later and slammed down a few strands of fine, blond hair.

“The rest of it.”

She met his gaze with a glare. Most wouldn’t dare do that but between her general fearlessness and the knowledge of what Laxus would do to him, she knew he wouldn’t use the power in his eyes on her. When he didn’t back down, she stormed back upstairs and got the rest of the hair.

“And, for safe measure, the voodoo doll.”

“No. I worked hard on that.”

He let the doll go. If only out of concern that the next one might be made for him. “Why did you take it?” he asked as he swept the hair into his hand and shoved it in his pocket.

“It was on a hairbrush in the bathroom. I didn’t really make a plan. It was just there so I took it. How did _you_ know that I took it?”

“Because I know you. You have contingencies upon contingencies. There’s no way you could pass up the opportunity even if you didn’t plan on using it immediately.”

“Hmph.”

“Lucy.” She looked up at him, knowing that him bothering to say her name meant that he was being serious. “I have three brothers who are all interested in you. Yes, you’ll probably break at least one of their hearts, but please, give them each the time of day.”

She gave him a wide-eyed nod.

“Good. Thanks.” As he was leaving, he added, “By the way, I slept with the girl that Dan was making out with last night, so he went home alone.”

Lucy snorted. It was a weird way to show affection but she’d take it.


	14. Candles

_Lucy was taking a bath. The tub was larger than the one in her suite at the Estate. She stretched into the hard chest of the man sitting behind her._

_“This is nice,” she murmured, enjoying the feeling of large hands on her body. “The water smells different.”_

_“It’s the Grass Sea,” the voice behind her said. It was Boscan and familiar but she couldn't place it. She hummed, shifting into the man's grasp a little more._

A loud bang jolted Lucy awake.

“Sorry!” Levy yelled, probably not realizing that Lucy had fallen asleep mid math assignment.

“What did you drop?” Lucy yelled back.

“A pan.”

Lucy stretched and glanced at the assignment with a curled lip. Thinking about her dream, she stood up and walked into her bathroom. Somewhere, she had some bath salts Bickslow had gotten her that had the properties of the Grass Sea. Next, she went looking for her vanilla-cinnamon candles.

After hunting around for a while, she muttered, “He didn't…” She grabbed her comm.

“Hey, Luce,” Natsu answered.

“You're going to replace my two vanilla candles that I'm assuming you ate in the next twenty minutes or I'm going to dump that Iceburg perfume onto your bed. Understand?” she said in her best Scary Lucy voice.

“Yes,” he said, dropping his comm without hanging up and running out.

“Idiot…”


	15. Séance

_Four years earlier…_

“That’s a Ouija board,” Lucy said when Mira whipped out the board.

“Yeah. I thought we could have a séance,” she said in that absurdly excitable voice of hers.

Lucy looked around, expecting someone from the group to say something. Natsu and Gray were fighting over…something. Bickslow looked amused while embarrassing Freed about having more conquests. Cana was still trying to figure out her alcohol threshold and was drunkenly chiming in.

“In the words of every token black person in a horror movie, that is a fucking stupid idea.”

There were snorts around the room.

“What’s the worse that could happen?”

“Yup. Heard that in horror movies too.”

“Bickslow is here.”

“If that’s supposed to convince me, it doesn’t. He’d let them wreak havoc as a joke.”

Bickslow walked over and draped himself over Lucy. “She knows me so well.”

“Get off,” she whined trying to shrug the larger man off. “I’m not living out a horror movie tonight. Or risking not being able to get a poltergeist out of my house until I make Bix cheesecake or something. Do it somewhere else.”

“But-”

“Nope. Go ask Cana to talk to the dead if you’re that curious.”

“Hmph,” Mira sulked.


	16. Broom

Around campus were a handful of ritual spaces. Primarily, they were used be people in the dorms that needed more space. Lucy ended up in one because Levy and Gajeel were having very loud make-up sex. The sounds and energy they were putting out was screwing with the meditation she needed.

Now, she was cleaning up. She felt more centered though also a bit hungry and a touch sore from stilling on the hard floor for so long. There were still bits of stardust in the air around her that shifted like dust in a sunbeam as she put away the candles. She’d already cleaned her magic circle up, but she grabbed the magic broom to sweep away her magic signature.

She hesitated to start sweeping. Instead, she marveled at how her magic looked in the beams of moonlight. Her living room was too modern. It made her magic lose its ethereal quality when watched like this.

“It’s beautiful.”

She jumped, glared, then tried sweeping Kaleb out of the room.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“It’s black laurel and chestnut. I’m trying to sweep the negativity out of my life.”

He put his hand over hers to stop her swatting his leg. “Lucy, stop.”

His tone made her glance up at him. She avoided doing that. Normally, she looked at his shoulder. Looking him in the eye reminded her of how attractive he was. It turned her brain to mush and made her forget that he was an arrogant Tech. It made it impossible for her to pretend that she didn’t have fantasies about him. Or that he didn’t look at her like she was delectable.

“Zen’s in more of them,” she said, recognizing that he was listening to the blender mess that was her mind.

“Yeah, but he can’t risk pushing you against the wall and kissing you senseless,” he said, his tone dropping a decibel or two. It was one of the fantasies that played out the most often in her mind and could be either Zen or Kaleb depending on her hormones.

“Maybe not, but he’s better cast in a lot of the others.”

He sighed and lifted his hand from the broom handle. “Maybe.” He looked back at her magic that looked like clusters of tiny fireflies. “Your magic is beautiful.”


	17. Crystals

_Crystals_. Lucy always rolled her eyes at the boring name for the shop, but it was still the only place to get stones on the island. It was a large, three story building with shelves upon shelves of every stone imaginable. They were organized by type and priced by size, type, and quality. The one thing that she was grateful for was that despite it being a maze of shelves and the sheer size, they had maps by the door.

There were probably a half-dozen of the maps floating around the house but she never remembered to grab one before leaving.

She had already grabbed the quartz that she needed and was attempting to find the beryl section on the map when someone grabbed her before she could run into a shelf. That didn’t stop the basket from dumping.

“Th-” The word stopped before she finished the utterance. Looking down at her with an amused half-smile was Zen. Somehow, she’d forgotten how beautiful his eyes were. “Thanks for saving me. Again.”

“You’re welcome. I haven’t seen you since you snuck out.”

Lucy blushed as she said, “Your magic and my magic and we should decide if we wanna be stuck together ‘cause I’m not entirely certain that if we had sex that we wouldn’t automatically mate and that’s really something should be decided while awake and alert and not still partially drunk even though I’m not sure there’d be enough intent there if we were drunk and-”

“You should probably breathe now.”

“Right. Um… I need to pick up my stones.” They collected the stones. “I can’t find the quartz.”

“Here, it is,” he said, picking it. When he placed it in her palm, his fingers brushed her pulse in wrist. The subtle touch made her heart stutter.

“Thank you,” she said again, not caring that she was breathless.

He leaned forward and whispered, “And if you ask, I’ll always catch you.”

She stood frozen and watched him leave. Once he was out of sight, the adrenaline disappeared and she sat in the middle of the aisle.

 

While sorting the crystals at home, she realized the quartz was damaged. She picked it for its clarity but now, shot through it were bits of yellow-gold and light gray. Holding it up to the light, she realized the quartz had captured a bit of hers and Zen’s magic. It was unusable now, so she set it on her bedside table.


	18. Tea Leaves

“Are you here to see me or just tea?” Cana asked when Lucy walked into Mira's tea shop.

“Mostly tea but if you've got time for me. I'm in a hurry.”

“I can be done in the time it takes for Mira to finish your drink.”

Lucy ordered her drink. In that time, Cana had already poured the hot water over the loose tea leaves. She let it cool a bit before carefully chugging the vaguely tea-flavored water.

“Let's see: a J and a heart. Since none of the Pradesh men have a J name I'm guessing your dad. Hm… He's planning another betrothal, isn't he?”

Mira delivered her spiced tea mixed with rum.

“I have to head home for a marriage interview. Gotta catch the next ferry. Any signs on whether this won't be a waste of time?”

“No. Sorry.”

Lucy smiled thinly before leaving.

“Her dad sucks,” Cana said to Mira, looking at the leaves. “You wouldn't happen to know the number of Bix's brothers, would you?”

Mira gave her a devious look. “You know, Zen's probably the only one that could beat her there.”

“Make the call.”


	19. Moth

_Three years earlier…_

Laxus draped his arm over the unexpecting teen’s shoulder. The younger man was attractive enough, according to Evergreen. He had dark brown hair and blue eyes. Laxus had snorted, not believing Natsu when he’d pointed out Lucy’s newest boyfriend. The boyfriend looked like a snob, dressed in a polo and expensive-looking jeans. That was compared to everyone else, including Lucy, that were wearing shorts and tank tops or bathing suits.

The boyfriend jumped and tried to move out of Laxus’s grip. “You must be Laxus. I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m-”

“Don’t care,” Laxus interrupted. “Walk with me for a moment.”

Laxus glanced back at Natsu and Gajeel who were keeping Lucy from noticing that Laxus was disappearing with her boyfriend. It was dark so some of the maids were setting up bug-zappers since Lucy couldn’t stand the scent of citronella.

“You know what I like about moths?” Laxus said suddenly, stopping in front of a bug-zapper.

“What?” the boyfriend asked. Laxus rolled his eyes at how high he squeaked.

“They’re vaguely intelligent. Like that one,” he said, pointing to a moth that flied around the zapper before realizing it was dangerous and flying away. “On the other hand.” This time he gestured to one of the many that flew directly into the zapper. “So, are you a smart moth or one of the many dead ones?”

The boyfriend gulped and chuckled weakly. “Are you saying Lucy’s a bug-zapper?”

“No. Lucy’s the light that attracts them. _I’m_ the zapper. I’ll give you some time to think about it.”

They rejoined the main group when Lucy fussed over how pale her boyfriend looked. Conversely, Laxus, Natsu, and Gajeel were high-fiving each other.

 

It was a week later that Lucy tore into the Fairy Tail guild. While not a member, everyone knew her well enough to get out of her way when she was on the warpath.

“Laxus Nikita Dreyer, get your ass down here right now?”

“Oh man, Boss,” Bickslow teased. “She even used your middle name.”

Laxus ignored his best friend and dropped down to the first floor and stalked towards Lucy in a way that was meant to be intimidating. “You’re not supposed to use my middle name,” he hissed.

“And you’re not supposed to terrorize my boyfriend into breaking up with me.”

“Hm… That took longer than expected.”

“Lucy kick!” she yelled as her kick sent him flying. “Stay out of my love life!” She turned her glare to Bickslow who was cackling from the second floor. “And your supposed to keep him from doing asinine shit like this.”

“He’s my best friend.”

“Uh huh… Who’s scarier?” she asked with her hands on her hips.

“In general or at the moment?”

Her glare narrowed and Bickslow heard Evergreen and Freed shuffle out of the way. “Open! Gate of the lion, Leo! Open! Gate of the virgin, Virgo!”

“Punishment?”

“Yes, Virgo. One last dragon slayer to deal with. Leo, if you would. Bix needs to be punished as well.”

Lucy stomped over to the bar, ignoring the wails coming from Laxus and Bickslow, pulled out her checkbook, and slammed down piece of paper in front of Mira and next to Makarov.

“That’s a lot of zeroes,” Makarov said, reverently picking up the check. The only thing he ever saw with that many zeroes were S-class jobs and damage reports.

“That should cover the damages. Can I get a strawberry milkshake?”

“Of course. On the house,” Mira added before Lucy could pull any cash out.

“We’re done, my love,” Leo said, trying to embrace her.

“The ropes will disappear in an hour, right?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Put them on the stage please.”

Her two spirits dropped the hogtied mages onto the stage. She’d sprayed every single perfume that she knew Natsu hated around his house. Virgo and she made a metal from lead and cesium and contaminated all of Gajeel’s stored metals.

Once everyone knew the details of her revenge, the guild learned to fear her.

.~*~.

_Present day…_

Lucy stood on the terrace. The property was large enough that there were no ambient noises from the city. It was a nice change from the island.

“What are you thinking about?”

She turned to see Zen in the doorway. He’d already been there when she arrived home. His presence, though he never said why he was there, thoroughly intimidated the suitor her father wanted her to meet.

It didn’t help that Zen had at least a foot on the man and probably fifty pounds of solid muscle. The suitor had tried to demean Zen as musclebound idiot which only irritated Lucy more.

“Are you a moth?”

“What?”

She gave him a Mona Lisa smile and shook her head. “Nothing. Never mind.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Nikita” was originally a masculine name, like Courtney or Ashley. It means ‘unconquered’ which seems like the kind of middle name that Ivan would use. However, Laxus seems like he’d be embarrassed by it because it had become feminine.


	20. Pendulum

Lucy walked into Wagner’s. She'd only wanted a bag of chips in between two of her classes. She didn't expect to find Kaleb standing at the stand with the pendulums.

“What are you doing? This seems awfully traditional,” Lucy said to his back. He flinched and turned to her with a furrowed brow.  

“I know. A professor said I needed to learn some traditional. I figured the pendulum would be easy.”

Lucy snorted then blushed at how unattractive that sounded. “Good professor.” She stepped next to him and started turning the display.

Her fingers grazed a few that caught her eye before pulling one out of its place. For a moment, it almost looked like she was glaring at it. It was a pink and green stone that had been shaped into a pointer, a simple silver chain, and a small ball of emerald at the end of the chain.

Kaleb was surprised that she'd chosen the simple one. He'd been looking at the ones with chakras or more impressive stones. In theory, he knew about stone resonances but had never watched someone do that. Felt the subtle beauty of a person's magic as they asked the stones their question.

“The basic use for a pendulum is simple answers.” She moved him over to one of the answer mats next to the stand. “Hold it steady,” she said softly. Her hands were holding his still. “Think of a question.”

He knew how to use the pendulum, but this was the first time she'd willingly touched him. It almost made him willing to look like an idiot if it kept her hands on him.

“Looks like your answer is yes,” she said, looking at the way the pendulum was swinging.

“I asked if you wanted to kiss me.”

She arched an eyebrow. “I usually want to punch you in the same thought.” She gestured for him to bend down and kissed his cheek.

“That's it?”

“Yup.” She skipped away, bought her bag of chips, and left.

When Kaleb got home, he looked up the stone that Lucy had picked. Unakite: attraction, resolving conflict, healing the past.


	21. Cauldron

“Lucy Heartfilia? On a tablet? Is the world ending?”

She looked up at the shit-eating grin on Vander’s face as he welcomed himself to her table. Bickslow and Kaleb followed his lead and sat down before she could comment.

“Do you think I stand cackling over a cauldron all day?”

“A little bit.”

She logged out before Bickslow could even think to steal her computer. Like most of the dragon slayers, he knew she liked to write. Though she wasn’t certain if he knew that she was dual majoring in Creative Writing and Business. Most importantly of all, she didn’t want him to know what she was writing.

“Do you _have_ a cauldron?” Bickslow asked.

“Yes. Mostly for Professor Simmons’ class. Usually, I just use a pot on the stove.”

“If you’ve updated how you use magic, why do you hate Techs so much?” Vander asked. Like Bickslow, Vander knew his brothers were interested in the woman. She was beautiful but hadn’t interested him enough that he was willing to go up against his brothers.

“You know what my magic is, right?”

“Celestial magic,” Vander said.

“And?”

“Dragon tamer,” Kaleb said.

She turned to look at his nose. “Yeah. When I was growing up, I spent time around all kinds of mages. Especially after Mom died and I’d spend time at Fairy Tail and later, Sabertooth. There’s- Dragon tamer magic is both hereditary and knowledge that’s passed down. That kind of magic can’t be learned through technology. And yet, people act like it can. I got bullied a lot growing up because Techs act like magic like mine is obsolete or useless.

“Magic comes from nature. What happens to us when we no longer know how to commune with magic?”

Kaleb rested his head on his hand to look at her. Without eavesdropping on her thoughts, he knew she was thinking about the incident a week earlier with the pendulum. And she was right. He hadn’t known how to ask the stones which one was right for him. That hadn’t stopped the stone from being right.

“I don’t know,” Kaleb admitted.

“I don’t either. But I’m pretty sure, it’s probably not a good thing.”

“Lucy, you think you’re gonna look higher than his nose?” Vander asked, deciding he was tired of the more serious conversation.

Lucy blushed and accidentally met Kaleb’s eyes. Almost immediately, she felt her brain struggling not to turn to mush. Taking pity on her, Kaleb stood.

“My brother, the philosopher,” he said, mentally telling Vander to leave with him.

“His eyes are more dangerous than yours,” she muttered to Bickslow once they left.

“Probably because you haven’t figured out what your heart wants,” Bickslow commented. “Had to tell Cris that he didn’t stand a chance. Glad I caught that one in time. I’ve seen you with Zen and Kaleb. Your-”

“Bix. Shut up.”


	22. Mushrooms

“Lucy Heartfilia!” a voice half-screamed and half-sang. She flinched at how loud he was in her ear.

“Vander? You’re naked. Why are you naked in public?” She squeaked when Vander suddenly draped himself across her lap.

It was a beautiful day and she’d decided to study outside. And now she was being distracted by high-as-a-kite Vander. Somebody in the universe was having an inordinate amount of fun shoving the Pradesh men in her face.

“Let’s go fly. ‘Fly like an eagle. Let my spirit carry me.’ C’mon,” Vander announced and jumped up. Even if she thought he could fly, she would have let him in his condition.

“Hey,” she said, easing some of her dragon tamer magic into her voice. “I have a friend who I’m gonna call and he’s gonna play with us. But you’ve gotta stay on the ground until he gets here, okay?”

“Is he cute?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” Vander dropped to the ground and followed her with his eyes as she called Erik. She’d forgotten how that magic reacted in people that weren’t dragon slayers.

“Hey, Erik. I need a favor.”

“This better be good,” he said crankily.

“Oops. Sorry. Hi, Kinana!” She heard Kinana greet her as well. “I need you come to Hyde Park. I have a friend who got into something…”

“Yeah. I’ll be there in a sec.”

She wasn’t sure where the Pradesh men lived, but she knew that Erik lived in the dorms on the other side of the park.

“Is he coming?” he asked from his knees while still giving her that wide-eyed look.

“Yeah. Why don’t you play for a bit while I call your brothers?” Her first call to Cris went to voicemail. The second, to Zen, answered. “I have Van.”

“Thank the gods. He Void jumped before we could stop him. I’m on the other side of the island so it’ll take a few minutes.”

“That’s fine,” she said, seeing Erik. “Help just arrived.”

Seeing Erik approaching, Vander ran to him. “Lucy said you were going to play. Come play!”

Erik gave her a deer in the headlights look.

“Van, Erik and I need to talk for a bit so why don’t you keep playing.”

“Okay.”

“What the fuck is he on? ‘Shrooms?”

“Unless they’re from Wonderland, I’ve got nothing. Go find out what’s wrong with him.”

“You’re giving me permission to sink my teeth into Vander Pradesh?”

“Keep it PG-13.”

“Hmph. Either way, Tink, you are my favorite person right now.”

Kaleb and Zen both arrived as Erik was catching Vander and biting him.

“Stop!” she said as they both prepared to attack.

They joined Erik as he eased Vander down. “He’ll sleep for a bit. It was amalagathium.”

“Explains the symptoms but everyone knows those mushrooms are toxic. The only other thing would be a mix of herbs but-” She noticed Zen and Kaleb’s sheepish expressions. “What did you do?”

“We were just practicing,” Zen said.

“What were you making?” When neither of them would answer, she asked, “What was in it?”

Zen answered first, listing off the herbs. Nothing stood out especially which didn’t surprise her since she knew that he had to take the four levels of Potion-Making for Healers. Then Kaleb. Halfway through, she stopped him.

“First off, never use rosemary and dragon’s blood together. Secondly, cardamom, damiana, dragon’s blood, and saffron each release chemicals that when combined can create amalagathium so it’s kinda both of your faults. And lastly, seventy percent of the student body wants to bed you, so why were you two, of all people, making lust potions?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PSA: While yes, most of those herbs would be used in lust spells, not all of them are edible so don’t try this at home. And ‘amalagathium’ is a made-up word.


	23. Kaleb and Zen’s Adventures in Potion-Making

Vander walked into the kitchen to find Zen and Kaleb silently working. While Zen could cook, Kaleb burned water. Xally had nearly died laughing when perfectionist Kaleb forgot to check the water while peeling and cutting up potatoes.

More than that, half of the herbs from the potion cabinet were on the counter. Kaleb was using so much force to crush whatever herbs were in his mortar that it looked like he might break it.

“Whatcha doin’?”

“Be quiet. I’m concentrating,” Kaleb said through clenched teeth.

Vander turned to Zen who looked like he was trying to keep from laughing.

“He’s trying to prove that a Tech can learn traditional magic too. He’s trying to create a new lust potion with only what was in our cabinet.”

“And you?”

“Attraction with a hint of lust.”

“Uh huh…” Vander bit his lip and looked between Kaleb and Zen with an arched eyebrow. “You two do know that you could go up to virtually any woman or man and ask them to share pleasure and they would, right? I mean, don’t get me wrong. Lucy’s hot, but isn’t this a bit much?”

“No,” both men said.

“You two have heard enough horror stories from Bix to know what she’ll do to you when she finds out you slipped this to her, right?”

“That’s why were making ones meant for us. To intensify her attraction towards us,” Zen said.

“Oh…I can already think of half-dozen different way this is gonna go bad. I’m gonna go find Farron to see he can talk some sense into you.”

When he found the oldest Pradesh man, Farron said he’d already tried and failed to make them see sense. Deciding that, for once, it was his turn to be the voice of reason, Vander hung out in a shadow in the kitchen until Kaleb managed to successfully make a potion that didn’t register as toxic.

Before either of them could drink their potions, Vander popped out of the shadows, stole both cups, and gulped them down. Immediately, he felt really hot. “You know, I should’ve just dumped those.” Then he giggled and Void jumped before either of them could catch him.


	24. Ritual

Bickslow found Lucy laying on her bed and reading a book. “Is that comfortable?” he asked, looking at the way she was laying on her belly.

“As long as I’m not wearing a bra it works.” She closed her book and sat up. “I’m assuming you’re not here to talk about my reading positions.”

“Have you talked to them about the Sondassa Ritual?”

Lucy groaned and fell back onto her bed. The Sondassa Ritual was held the week before the winter solstice. Guilds around Ishgar participated. The ritual itself was relatively mundane and generally useless. To herald in the new year, mages cast this ritual for peace, prosperity, fertility, and general happiness. However, trying to make over a million people happy was impossible so there was still conflict.

It was the aftereffects that could be problematic. The ritual released energy that acted as an aphrodisiac so only adults could participate. Couples, especially new ones, liked to participate because if they were as in sync with one another as they believed, they’d only be interested in one another. At the school, Fiorians liked to participate because it was ‘no strings attached’ sex combined with a haziness that made it difficult to know what happened during that time.

Last year, much like this year, she was participating because of the dragon slayers. The worst thing to happen to any of them would be to mate while not full cognizant of it. However, the nature of her magic meant that the slayers would seek out her approval before claiming someone as their mate. The full moon was also coinciding with the ritual so the headmaster thought letting Cristoff’s pheromones run rampant would help because they’d also make people more forgetful and Lucy’s presence could reign him in if need be.

“You need to talk to them. They’ve-”

“No.”

“-Practically had their comms attached to their hands waiting for you to call.”

“Shut up.”

“You’re attracted to both of them, so you might as well stop pretending-”

“Shut up.”

“-That the ritual won’t send you to-”

“Bix, stop. You know what’s pissing me off? Fucking Laxus. Five years I’ve been putting up with him terrifying any potential boyfriends away for those few times I can ask him to scare away some asshole that won’t take a hint. But now I ask him, and he says no. He likes your brothers. Hell, I wouldn’t put it past him to have money in Mira and/or Cana’s gambling pool that we both know they have.”

“You’re not going to call either of them, are you?”

“No. I’m not giving them the satisfaction of being right,” she said with a pout.

He laughed. “You know you’ll end up with one of them by the end of the night, right?”

“Maybe. Maybe not. I have a few tricks up my sleeve. Of course, you could be my date.”

He was man enough to admit that he had a crush on her. He was also man enough to admit that Laxus terrified him if he even considered Lucy. But he also knew that Lucy largely saw him in the same way she saw her dragons. That’s why it didn’t surprise him that she’d unconsciously moved Cristoff into that category.

Instead, he ruffled her hair and laughed when she swatted his hand away. “Sorry, but I’m pretty sure Laxus will follow through with his threat.”

She laughed and let him go.


	25. Teeth

_She felt his hard body as he pulled her closer. Her hands found purchase in his long hair. Felt his teeth graze her neck._

_“Gods, I love you,” he murmured followed by him sucking a small bite into her skin._

Lucy bolted up, her hand immediately going to the hickey, then muffled a sob with her pillow. It had been two days since the ritual. Two days that she’d been dreaming about the man she’d spent the night with.

Only Cana knew that something more than mindless sex happened. The hickey was along her hairline in a spot meant for her to know. The biter hadn’t considered that she had a psychic best friend that had a particularly special gift for sniffing out things like a hickey.

Cana had been going around to all the single women in their friend circle to see who remembered what. It was under her badgering that Lucy broke down and revealed what she remembered: a pre-coital love confession.

Her friend’s following words were what was hurting her heart, ‘Love confessions during the ritual don’t happen unless they’re meant. It’s like a drunk mind is an honest one.’

Then, because it was Cana, that bit of wisdom was followed by her saying that it could be Kaleb or Zen. She’d tried to get a taste of all the Pradesh men and had succeeded except for those two.

She thought about the way the man’s mouth felt on her body. How careful he was with his mouth that his teeth only left that one mark. _Yeah, he could definitely be Boscan_ , she thought. What surprised her the most was that she didn’t find herself disappointed that it might’ve been Kaleb and not Zen.


	26. Owl

“Who. Who,” the owl hooted as Zen landed.

“That is a very good question,” he muttered.

The morning after the Sondassa Ritual, he’d planned on gloating at Kaleb. Until he ran into Kaleb who’d had the same goal. They both remembered sex but couldn’t remember with who. Since people gravitated towards those they were attracted to or had strong feelings towards in the haze caused by the ritual, they each assumed it had been Lucy. The one thing that both were confident about was that Lucy wouldn’t have slept with both of them.

There’d only been a day on the island before they were supposed to fly home from school and since Lucy didn’t come barging into the house, they were assuming she wasn’t sure who’d she slept with either.

“Damnit,” he cursed.

It didn’t help that their father had immediately recognized the tension between them. Vander told him about the fact that both of them were attracted to the same woman. Arman, then, disappeared with Bickslow to interrogate everything he knew about Lucy since he’d known her the longest.

If there was one thing that Zen knew about his father, it was that he was scheming someway to get Lucy to the house during winter vacation. And he honestly couldn’t decide if he wanted him to be successful.

Zen and Kaleb had shared women in the past, but this was the first time that either of them had fallen for the same woman. They were walking a fine line and they knew it. It was spreading into their brothers as well who were walking on eggshells because none of them had been in this position. As long as the conversation didn’t shift towards lovers, they were fine.

The situation was untenable but short of asking Lucy to choose, there really wasn’t a solution because Bickslow had acknowledged that she infatuated with both of them as well.

“Who. Who,” the owl hooted again.

“Yeah, yeah,” Zen muttered.


	27. Healing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These are supposed to be posted daily.... Oops.

Lucy stared at the frozen meals. The school would be closed over break and only a few people that lived in the neighborhoods had requested permission to stay on the island while most of the houses would have their electricity reduced to minimal. It conserved energy and helped prevent any fires from snow storms while everyone was away. Most of the stores would be closed for the two weeks of winter break and the ferry would only make the trip to the mainland and back once a day so the grocery store’s freezer section had been picked bare.

She started crying. She was on her period which is why cookies and chocolate had been her first stop. The dreams meant she hadn’t gotten any sleep and she was resistant to using the sleep potion she’d made after the second night. It was the last day for the stares to be open and she really needed to decide if she was going to go home. Feasibly, she could go home for Yule and then return the following day.

“You know, I’m not sure what crying in the frozen food aisle means.”

Lucy jumped and turned to look at the dragon slayer slowly walking up to her. His mannerisms reminded her of someone approaching a feral animal.

“I’m fine,” she said, wiping away her tears hastily. “Besides, I’m pretty sure healing magic can’t do anything about this.”

Cristoff nodded slightly. Given that his brothers had been brooding for the last couple of days since the ritual had happened, he could only imagine what the little blonde was going through.

“What are you still doing here?” she asked while he was musing.

“Finishing up an assignment. I can teleport myself home. You?”

“Trying to decide if I want to deal with going home for break. Someone chose all the flavors I like. Crying over that must seem stupid, huh?”

“Xally, my sister, like to bake her own chocolate when she’s on her period. One time, she fell asleep after only eating three of the corner pieces of brownies. Vander wakes up and eats the fourth. She nearly killed him when she found out he’d eaten her corner piece. All while sobbing hysterically.

“I get it.”

She giggled, and he smiled at the successful reaction.

“You know, I don’t have an answer for you besides my brothers are pretty miserable too. And I give really good hugs.”

She let out a wet laugh and launched herself into his arms.


	28. Transformation

Winter break with her father had sucked as much as Lucy had thought it would. She wasn’t taking enough business classes and the few that she did weren’t up to his standards. Crying into Cristoff’s chest and the realization that nothing she’d want to eat was available, she grudgingly ended up going home.

Luckily, her friends, in anticipation of knowing that she barely got along with her father, had spent many days there. It had been a long time since she’d spent that kind of quality time with Natsu. College and Lisanna being his mate, he didn’t need her around as much. And Lucy suspected that Lisanna didn’t like her as much as her sister did. That being his mate hadn’t changed the one-sided rivalry that Lisanna seemed to have.

Now, she was back and immensely grateful for that except for one thing. The island had undergone a transformation from school to death trap. Without anyone to salt the sidewalks, the snow had melted and refroze, so everything was practically a sheet of ice. Trying to get to class, she kind of hated both Natsu and Grey for their ease of dealing with the ice.

“Fuck,” she cursed as she slipped for the third time, but someone caught her before she could land.

“You asking?” the deep, Boscan voice asked. She looked up into purple and gold-flecked eyes.

Worse than before, her face turned bright red as she moved away from Zen.

> _“Gods, I love you.”_

Hearing his accent, she could definitely place her lover as Boscan, but the memory was still so hazy that she struggled to differentiate it between Zen or Kaleb.

“I- um… Bye.”

She darted into the closest building despite it being the technical science department building to get away.


	29. Pact

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part of writing Half-baked was to work on creating a plot for NaNoWriMo. I still have no plot but I have a world. This one is probably the heaviest mythology based segment. I'm going to create my own Pantheon but the Greeks worked for this.

“I’m curious about something,” Vander said, dropping down at the picnic table where Lucy was sitting. It was one of the covered patios with tall heaters spread out but the didn’t stop the occasional gust of wind from blowing snow into the patio so it was still mostly empty.

“They’re not here,” he added, noticing her furtive glances around.

“Oh. Right. Good. So, what’s the question?”

“How did your family come to be dragon tamers?”

“A pact with Hestia. Ares created the first dragon slayers in the hopes of creating the perfect warrior. Except they were human and had free will. When they didn’t turn out the way he wanted, he abandoned them and went back to the drawing board.

“Hestia, in her big sisterly way, knew that Ares creations needed to be protected. They were too powerful to be left to their own devices. So, she went to a couple who were trying to conceive and offered them a deal. They would have children and wealth on two conditions: the first was that they could never change their last name so that dragon slayers could always find their way to them and secondly, that they’d never turn away a dragon slayer.

“Dad has to walk a fine line with that one. If he turns them away before I know about them, it bypasses that part of the pact since he’s not _the_ Heartfilia. It actually what happened to Erik. He came into his powers after Mom died. Nearly killed his science class when he got nervous during an oral report. Dad didn’t want him anywhere near me. I found out about him when he cornered me at the store.”

“He’s a good guy. And damn is he good in bed.”

“I know the first. Didn’t need to know the second. He just struggles with his powers more than others.”

“You care about all of them, don’t you?”

“Of course. They’re my dragons,” she said with a smile.

“And my brothers?”

Vander watched as her face turned so red that he was fairly certain it was hotter than the heater.

“You know, if one of you could figure out who you slept with, that would be great, ‘cause the whole walking on eggshells at home is getting really old.”

“Shut up,” Lucy said, dropping her head into her textbook.


	30. Oracle

The first spring rain had washed away the snow. Despite meteorologists and Cana’s warnings not to get too excited, Levy and Lucy were. Verona, one of the Minstrellan cities that served as a port for the school, had an annual festival. The snow wasn’t going to stop it, but it would’ve stopped the women from going.

 Levy hadn’t forced Gajeel to come along. Instead saying that she was going to enjoy the girls’ day. Cana had wanted to go to the wine sampling. The crowds quickly buffered the two petite women away from the tent.

“She’ll call us later?” Lucy said after their third attempt to get in.

“Probably the best idea. Oo! Funnel cake.”

Giggling, the two women bought their treats and wandered around the fair. They’d stop so that Lucy could buy little trinkets. One being a headband that Levy tried to refuse until Lucy gave her a mild version of her patented glare.

“What is it?” Levy asked when Lucy stopped suddenly.

“I’m not sure,” she said, looking around her. “Hm. I bet it’s nothing. Leo would’ve popped out by now if it was something.”

They continued wandering until they were stopped by a woman grabbing Lucy’s forearm. The woman looked like a cliché attempt at a gypsy. She wore a multitude of shawls and bangles that clinked with her every move. Her eyes were ringed in dark kohl and the shade of red on her lips would’ve been better suited on a vampire.

“I am the Oracle, Madame Delphine. Wouldn’t you like reading?”

Lucy and Levy shared a look. Both were trying their hardest not to laugh. Levy shook her head, knowing Lucy’s unasked question. No, she didn’t smell alcohol on the ‘psychic’ either.

“I’m good. Thank you.”

“Are you sure? Might be able to help you decide.”

Lucy visibly flinched. “No, thank you.”

“Hm… Must be hard to decide between two such beautiful men. I’ll give you this advice though. You already have the way to get to him.”

“Right,” Lucy mumbled as she pulled her arm away.

“You okay, Lu?” Levy asked as they walked away.

“Yeah. Just surprised that she’d managed to guess men problems.”

“I’m not. Given how many men have ogled you while we’ve been here yet you’re with me and we don’t give off as much a platonic lesbian vibe as Cana does with well everyone... That sentence got away from me for a bit. Anyways, assuming guy problems is probably the easiest way for her to lure women in.”

“I’m gonna remind you of this if we do end up finding an obscure spell in one of your books.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Levy said. She glanced down at her comm when it beeped. “Cana’s out. Let’s head back to grab her.”

Lucy laughed and followed Levy back.


	31. Shadow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I start a new job on the 29th and I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to want to worry about these for the next few days so here's the rest of the month early.

_This is ridiculous_ , Zen thought as he carefully walked just far enough away from Lucy that he could feel the buzzing of her magic in his bands but far enough not to be noticed.

He was really glad that this was happening in Minstrel and not Fiore. The crowds that he and his brothers drew in Fiore tended to be rather noticeable. If anything, she seemed to be drawing more attention than he was.

_I’m shadowing a woman instead of just talking to her._

He groaned, grateful that neither Bickslow or Vander were there to tease him. He was acting like a teenage boy in the rom-coms that his sisters liked. Except that the frustrating woman was avoiding him. He hadn’t gone to the festival with the intent to follow her. But there she was. And she hadn’t seen him and bolted. Her evasive maneuvers were rather impressive though he wondered if she was getting help from her spirits.

He drew too close and she stopped to look around causing him to duck behind a tent. Her brow furrowed and her lips pursed. It was an adorable expression.

“You’re a shitty shadow,” the psychic said as he tried to pass her after Lucy and Levy moved on.

He frowned as he looked at her. “You’re high.”

“Generally. It’s better for my liver. Seriously though, there is too much of you to think that hiding behind tents is a good idea.”

“She hasn’t noticed.”

“She’s trying hard _not_ to notice. If it makes you feel better, she’s almost there.”

“Almost where?”

“To the answer, of course. She’s had it since before she knew the question.”


	32. Crystal Ball

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> October 30th's post.

“You want me to use the crystal ball?” Cana asked.

The two women were in Cana’s student apartment that she shared with Juvia. It was kept immaculate. More by Cana than by Juvia though most assumed the water mage did most of the cleaning. Sober Cana tended to be a neat freak and Drunk Cana needed her space to be clean.

“Yup,” Lucy said, sitting down on the couch in the living room. She knew that she couldn’t touch the orb, or she’d have brought it out herself.

“Are you sure? My cards-”

“-Can’t give you images. You’ve been trying the cards daily for a week now. It’s time for a different approach.”

Cana sighed and retrieved the crystal ball from its spot on her shelf. She ran her hand over it and murmured softly. All psychics chose a magic language. Most mages too. It was a way to make their craft easier for them. And more unique.

After a few minutes, Cana got up and grabbed a pen and paper.

“Does this mean anything to you?”

Lucy looked at it and her eyes widened.

“Judging by that expression, I’m guessing yes.”

“It’s a grimoire signing rune. The same one that was on the grimoire I was looking for the day that I met Kaleb.”

“That’s a pretty good cosmic sign.”

“The oracle from the fair might not have been as full of shit as we thought. She said that I already had the way to get to him.” She paused then chuckled. “It’s not the book itself that the key. It’s a spell in the book.”

Lucy stood.

“Go get ‘em, girl!”


	33. Lunatism

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> October 31st

“Found it!” Lucy yelled, crashing into Levy’s room across the hall.

Levy took a quick look at the spell that Lucy was pointing out. “Lunatism? As in sleep walking?”

“Yup. Well, kinda. It puts you in a sleep-like trance so that your subconscious can follow its instincts without the conscious mind. The mage that wrote this believed that our entire destinies are already written into our souls and that the subconscious has a link to it.”

“Okay,” Lexy said, sitting up. “Do you need my help?”

“Yes. Since neither Kaleb or Zen are here, I’ll need someone to keep me from walking in front of a car.”

“That’s valid. What do we need?”

“Nothing. Just the incantation. There’s a note saying that candles and incense are helpful but not required. Let’s forgo it and see if it works without first.”

They moved down to the living room in an attempt to minimize any potential injury. Lucy sat down on the floor and started chanting. It took a few minutes then suddenly, mid-word, she stopped.

“Lucy?” Levy questioned, waving her hand in front of Lucy’s face but didn’t get a reaction.

Lucy stood and started walking. As she’d warned, Levy had to stop her from walking into traffic. Whomever she was walking towards was getting around and Levy wished he’d stop moving. With them moving, Levy couldn’t call Gajeel to help stop Lucy, so she was grateful that her friend wasn’t that much taller.

Zen was stopped at the park. He was wearing workout clothes and Levy realized he must’ve been in the middle of an afternoon run and that was why he was constantly changing directions. Once she was certain that Lucy could get to him without injury, Levy stepped back and watched.

“Lucy?” Zen said, when he saw her approach.

Hearing him say her name, she stopped and blinked. When she saw him, she smiled.

“Of course.”  

“What’s going on?”

“I did a spell for guidance.”

“You needed a spell to tell you to come to me?” he asked and Lucy could hear a hint of hurt in his voice.

“The night of the ritual, you said you loved me. I was scared that I’d choose wrong. I couldn’t remember who I was with.”

Zen cupped her cheek. “If you’d have asked, I’d have told I loved you without the spell. I have since the dance. Since I stupidly asked you to share pleasure, forgetting that you weren’t just a beautiful woman in my bed but a celestial mage. And _you_ turned me down when you remembered.”

“I- uh- Oh.”

“Can I kiss you now?”

“Yes, please.”

He chuckled, bent down, and kissed her.


	34. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tend to be mean to poor Kaleb in SU so for once, here's me being nice to him. Besides, I like happy endings.  
> Rhiannon is my OC from SU.

Kaleb was leaving his Advanced Archive magic class when someone yanked him into the empty neighboring classroom. The young woman was in his archival magic class. She was Caelish, one of only six in the entire school, which made her impressive by her own merits. The fact that she was brilliant and her attitude to the generally cocky professor was a constant source of amusement.

“This is all ye’re fault. Did ye know that I didnae want a mate? I was happy. I enjoyed the bathhouses an’ flings wi’ Boscan men an’ women. An’ havin’ a flippin’ mate was not part of the plan. An’ now! Now, nothing’s workin’. The best flippin’ Sudahpah this school has to offer couldnae arouse me an’ it’s all ye’re fault!”

“I’m not sure as much of that was in Common as you think it was,” Kaleb said when she finally took a breath.

“My name is Rhiannon McKinnon, earth dragon slayer. And ye, Legolas, are apparently my mate. I never should’ve gone to that damned ritual.”

It took him a moment but remembered the feeling of the sharpened canines of a dragon slayer. Remember digging his fingers into her wild curls.

“Was that your first time? The ritual, I mean.”

“Yes. I had the flu last year.”

“How old are you?”

“Nineteen.”

“How are you in my Advanced Archive class?”

“I use a very specific type o’ archival magic that I created. The school decided it would be more detrimental tae myself and others tae put me in the beginners’ course.”

“I’m your mate? Did you remember the ritual?”

“No. A dragon slayer in one of my classes said that the likely reason I cannae have sex is because I was wit’ my mate during the ritual. Then today, when ye bumped intae me… I dinnae know why I didn' claim ye at the ritual.”

“Lucy. Apparently even dragon slayers that she doesn’t know instinctively want her approval.”

“Heartfilia. I’ve heard the name around. Come on then.”

The campus was mostly empty since there weren’t any late classes compared to other universities. Kaleb let her pull him as he tapped into her thoughts and smiled. He’d noticed it in class but for the first time appreciated it. All her thoughts were in Caelish except the immediate ones that she was translating to say. It was one of the languages he’d never had a reason to learn so he couldn’t become bored as her thoughts became predictable.

 _She chose Zen_ , came a thought from Cristoff, causing him to stop. He was grateful for that, realizing that they weren’t meant to be.

“What is it?” Rhiannon asked, looking up at him.

“Lucy’s busy, but I’m pretty sure that we don’t have to be mated to share pleasure.”

She gave him a flirty smile with a hint of fang then frowned. “I’m in a dorm.”

“I’m not.”

“Lead the way.” As he started to walk, she stopped him. When he turned back, she pulled him down to kiss. He returned the kiss until he felt her moan into it.

“Nope,” she breathed. “Definitely do not need to be mated.”

She then pulled him into another kiss.


End file.
